Ages 0-4: Animals Are Delicious

Description

Animals eat animals in this informative exposé of three animal food chains

Three of the longest food chains of the animal kingdom are depicted in three accordion-foldout volumes, complete with stunning dimensional art and sparse read-aloud text.

Young children will experience the factual, specific, and possibly surprising information via bright visuals, pleasingly repetitive text, and a physical folding-out of the chain itself. The food chains are themed as terrestrial, avian, and aquatic, respectively, fully researched and vetted by a professional.

The information effectively expands upon the familiar experience of eating by portraying the parallel experience within the animal kingdom; it also creates a basis upon which to discuss the carnivorous tendencies of humans!

Everyone is hungry in Animals Are Delicious by illustrators Dave Ladd and Stephanie Anderson. So, what do they eat? Take a visual journey through three different food chains: forest, sky, and ocean. For example, what does a shrew eat? In one food chain, a shrew eats a black ground beetle, but someone else is also hungry…for the shrew! Kids can enjoy taking a storybook-style journey through each food chain, or they can stretch them out all the way and pick out similarities and differences between the food chains. The images created by Ladd and Anderson, which are made from a combination of mixed media “sets” and figurines placed in paper, are whimsical and reminiscent of dioramas found in a natural history museum.

Activity

Create more food chains! Start by observing animals in a local park, your favorite nature documentary, or even the animals seated at your dinner table! Work backward in the food chains you observe and research the chomp, gulp, snap, or nibbles that are taken at each stage. Incorporate the arts in this adventure and create a food chain board book of your own.